Wally Szczerbiak

ARTICLES ABOUT WALLY SZCZERBIAK BY DATE - PAGE 2

Can Wally Szczerbiak save the NBA? Can he save the Bulls? That might be a more formidable task. Szczerbiak will do a general workout for NBA teams Friday at the predraft camp here, and then work out for the Bulls on Tuesday. "I don't know what the Bulls are planning on doing," he said. "There's something about Chicago. I really think management-wise they'll be on the right page. "I always said there's no place I'd rather be. I think the town is unbelievable. I grew up in New York.

When Wally Szczerbiak dunked one-handed over Kentucky on Friday, it probably ended any debates about his athleticism. His teammates' abilities, however, are open season now. Kentucky knew it had to stop Szczerbiak, but something was lost in the translation, not to mention the execution. Miami scored 19 points in the first half Friday, and Szczerbiak had 15 of them. Still, if that's what the RedHawks were going to serve up, then that's what the Wildcats would take. Szczerbiak was 5 of 9 from the field in the first half.

Kentucky's strategy was simple Friday night. Let Wally Szczerbiak do what he does to everybody. Just make sure his teammates don't become household names. "We knew Wally was going to get his points," said the Wildcats' Scott Padgett. "We wanted to play great team defense. The thing we wanted to do was make their other people make plays. This is going to sound crazy, but he only got 16 shots." Kentucky advanced to the Elite Eight by containing Szczerbiak and snuffing out the rest of Miami of Ohio on the way to a 58-43 victory.

"Hello, world." If Miami of Ohio senior forward Wally Szczerbiak has been a known quantity since leading the United States to the gold medal at last summer's Goodwill Games, he saved his official coming-out party for last weekend in New Orleans. And what a party it was. With the whole world watching, Wally wowed 'em--and then knocked 'em dead. Last weekend, chants of "Wally! Wally! Wally!" echoed through the Superdome. This weekend, Wally's show moves to St. Louis, where Miami meets Kentucky on Friday night in the Midwest Regional.

In Wally World, apparently, teammates are nice but not all that necessary. From the looks of it, the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks barely supplement Wally Szczerbiak's purposes. At least that's the way it looked Friday as the 10th-seeded RedHawks (23-7) upset No. 7 seed Washington 59-58 in the first round of the Midwest Regional at the Louisiana Superdome. Thanks to one of the most impressive individual performances in NCAA tournament history, Miami will play No. 2 seed Utah (28-4)